Process of reproducing oil paintings



HENRY 1?. G. STEEDMAN, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO WILLIAM BOYD, OE NEW YORK, N Y.

PROCESS OF REPEO DIICING OIL PAINTINGS.

No Drawing.

To all to 7mm it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY PERCY Gonamrrs'ron STEEDMAN, a sub3ect of the King of Great Britain, residing at London, in

the county of London, England, have in vented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Reproducing Oil Paintings; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention consists in the novel features hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claims, and is an improvement in the process disclosed in my former Letters Patent of Great Britain #115,108 of 1911.

In the preparation of reproductions of oil paintings by the process disclosed in my former patent, as ordinarily practiced, colored lithographs or other colored prints on paper, of the painting to be reproduced, are prepared in any desired manner. An em bossing die is then prepared having thereon variations of surface levels, corresponding with the brush marks, varying paint levels, and canvas grain of the original oil painting. This die has been formed usually by preparing a clich 0r matrix, either by hand or photographically, as set forth in my pending application for Letters Patent of the United States'filed January 81, 1920, #355,399, or otherwise; and the embossing die may be formed of plastic, as described in said application, or it may be formed by casting or by impressing the clich into the face of a softened plate of ebonite or other suitable material, as set forth in my British patent above referred to.

Where the cliche is prepared by hand, one of the prints on paper is usually mounted on a piece of coarse canvas, and the face of the print is painted over by hand with a plastic material, which will readily harden, so as to produce raised portions corresponding exactly with the brush marks and varying levels of the painted surface in the original painting. Inthe preparation of a die from such cliches, the casting of a die in metal or other suitable material has been found to be unsatisfactory by reason of the fact that undercut or overhanging portions are formed which tend to destroy or injure prints during the embossing process, and

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed July 2, 1920.

Patented May 16, 1922.

Serial No. 393,715.

ployed frequently tends to break, destroy, or Y smooth out some of the raised portions of the cliche so as to preclude the perfect reproduction of the cliche. In my former application for patent of the United States I have disclosed a process of forming the embossing die by the use of a casein plastic, which has been found to give good results, but even this process is open to some objections, as the casein composition or other plastic usually contains moisture which has a tendency to soften and distort the cliche and also in the drying and hardening of the die, the evaporation of the moisture causes it to contract and coarsen the variations of surface so as to detract from the reproduction desired.

The object of my present invention is to produce an embossing die for use in the process of reproduction of oil paintings which shall in the most perfect manner possible receive and retain the finest variations of surface, brush marks, variations of paint level, canvas grain, and so forth, and to retain these marks when the die is hardened, so that these delicate and fine variations of surface shall be imparted to the prints embossed therewith and reproduce the quality of surface of the original oil painting in the most perfect manner possible, and with the greatest artistic effect and accuracy.

In carrying out my invention, I form a cliche either by a photographic process such as is set forth in my former a plication for Letters Patent of the nited States #355,399, or by preparing one of the colored prints mounted on canvas and painted by hand with quick drying and hardening material in accurate representation of the brush marks and varying paint levels of the original painting, or otherwise, so as to provide a surface presenting a reproduction misses to the finest of such variations'of surface,

llhe soft subber sheet or sheet of soft rubber dough isfthen vulcanized and hardened by the application of heat While under pressure, and is then removed from the cliche, there by producing a die of suflicient hardness and in which the finest variations of surface are accurately reproduced, Without injury to the sult is a colored print presenting in the most perfect manner the surface qualities of the original oil painting.

lVhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is '1. The herein described process for the reproduction of oil paintings, which consists in preparing a cliche having upon its surface irregularities corresponding to the can vass grain, brush marks and variations of surface levels of the original painting, ap-

plying an unvulcanized, vulcanizable rubber composition in the form of a soft dough to said cliche, without the application of heat, and pressing the said rubber dough upon and into the surface of the cliche so as to produce a perfect impression in the soft rubber dough of the surface variations of the cliche, and then vulcanizing the rubber dough to harden it and preserve said variations of surface, and forming an embossing die, and then embossing registering'colored prints of the painting with the die so formed.

2. The herein described process for the reproduction of oil paintings, which consists in preparing a cliche having upon its surface irregularities corresponding to the canvas grain, brush marks and variations of surface levels of the original painting, applying an unvulcanized, vulcanizable rubber composition in the form of a soft dough to said cliche, without the application of heat, and pressing said rubber dough upon and into the surface of the cliche so as to produce a perfect impression in the soft rubber dough of the surface variations of the cliche, and then vulcanizing the rubber dough while retaining the pressure of the cliche thereon, to harden the rubber and preserve the variations of surface of the cliche impressed therein, and then using the vulcanized rubber die so formed as an embossing die and embossing registering colored prints of the painting therewith.

."In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

HENRY P. G. STEEDMAN. 

